George Bignell

George Carter Bignell born on March 1, 1826 th, in Exeter, Devon (Exeter, Devon, England). He left school at 12 to work as a cashier. At age 16 he joined the Royal Military Corps and was assigned to the battleship of the third rank of the Royal Navy named `HMS Superb`. It is now the wreck is notable in that it became one of the latest vehicles, entirely made of wood and walking only under sail.

Bignell saw in Portugal (Portuguese) is a `Little Civil voyna` in 1848, as part of the squadron sent to support the Queen Mary II (Maria II). During his service in the Marines Bignell addicted to science. He especially liked to study insects as soon dropped out such a possibility. He retired from the Navy with the rank of sergeant to 22 years old.

After serving Bignell was appointed to the Registrar of Births and Deaths (RBD) and became the Department of Justice officials in the area of ??Stonehouse in Plymouth, Devon (Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon). His spare time he devoted to entomology, exploring the countryside of Devon (Devon) and Cornwall (Cornwall) in search of interesting samples and studying the habitat of insects.

Although George has studied and collected a variety of insects, for the most part, he worked with the Ichneumonidae, parasitic wasps (riders). He found nineteen kinds of riders that were completely unknown to science. Two species are named after him. Bignell designed a simple device for catching insects, which he called `Bignell Beating Tray`. It is a piece of stretched fabric, which are falling from the branches to shake the insects. Besides insects, Bignell later also began to explore the algae.

Bignell was a member of the Athenaeum Plymouth (Plymouth Athenaeum), organization interested in the study and promotion of art, literature, science and technology. He was president of the nonprofit charitable organization `Plymouth Institution` in 1893. George was also a member of the Royal Entomological Society of London (RESL). He has written many articles for the magazine `The Entomologist`,` Young Naturalist` and `Transactions of the Plymouth Institution`. A large collection of insects collected by him is exhibited in the Museum of Plymouth (Plymouth Museum), as well as a small part of an entomologist finds is the Natural History Museum in London (NHML).

The first two Bignella wife left him a widower. He married for the third time in 1874. He moved in 1898 from Stonehouse in Saltash (Saltash) in Cornwall. George died in his 84 birthday, 1 March 1910. After himself Bignell left three daughters.